Schools

Talking Suitcases™ is an innovative and creative project for the schools. Participants create Talking Suitcases on topics like Immigration or Family History, or about their everyday lives and culture. They can gather their own ancestor or family stories or create personal tales to tell in their Talking Suitcases. Either way, they create multiple handmade objects out of simple materials that embody the stories they wish to tell. If time permits, they also decorate the suitcase itself, often making it into a partial diorama of their story. The final projects can be shared in classrooms or in a larger community events. They can be primarily visual displays with story labels, or they can be displayed in performance as well.

Talking Suitcases™ is a great project for classes of mixed ELL and non-ELL speakers, since students can work at their own level, and most of the work is visual arts-based. It offers a rich vocabulary of visual elements for students with limited English skills, and offers their fluent English-speaking peers a rare chance to see more deeply into the ELL students’ world.